


The Nutcracker Job

by laCommunarde



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: CCPD, F/M, Gen, Holiday Traditions, Hostage / Kidnapping - 22nd Dec – Soulmates, Inside Mick’s Novel - 19th Dec - Mobsters / Crime Noir, Kidnapping, M/M, Mobsters, the nutcracker on ice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 00:15:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17355326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laCommunarde/pseuds/laCommunarde
Summary: Lisa, Len and Mick go to watch Nutcracker on Ice at their community ice skating rink. However, the ice show's Clara has gotten kidnapped. So Lisa skates the part, while Len and Mick go track the ice show's Clara down.





	The Nutcracker Job

It had been a Snart and Rory family tradition ever since Lisa was small that Len and Mick would go watch her ice skate in the Nutcracker at their community ice skating rink. She had been Clara for years there, before skating began to get competitive enough to take her away from Central, and before Lewis came to Len telling him to have Lisa throw the competition that would’ve taken her to the Olympics. 

Now, she came with them and watched same as they did, because a family tradition was a family tradition, even if their family was small and made up of two criminals who were in and out of the can on a regular basis and didn’t have a fixed address and her and her stupid stray cat that had somehow adopted her and her place as its primary residence. The cat did not accompany them to the show. But Len, Mick and Lisa went, same as every year. It was in their area of town, and if anyone recognized them a little more this year than in the past, no one commented, though a child did smile up at Len and scoot a little closer to Lisa before the child’s mother saw and tugged him back over by her.

Community, as mentioned. It meant they got regarded differently from the way the rest of Central saw them. And even those who didn’t owe Len or Mick personally knew they had Len to thank for keeping them from paying protection money to the Santinis or the Darbynians.

That night, however, the pair of criminals and Lisa were off the clock, and even Mick was kicking his legs back and forth waiting for the show to begin, for all he tended to complain his butt was cold if he sat there too long any other day.

However, as the lights went down, a man in the shiny leggings that marked him as a performer in the show scurried over to them. “Lisa! Lisa! I thought I recognized you!”

Lisa squinted at him. “Pradeep! It’s been forever! You’re still skating?”

“Yes, but now I’m the Nutcracker.” He beamed with pride.

“Congratulations! You know my brother and his partner.” No need to mention criminal partner, even if that always got her brother’s back up. It wasn’t like it was false either, as she had pointed out to her brother multiple times. Most of their neighborhood had an idea that they were partners in the more than just on jobs sense and was fine with it, particularly as Len had donated the building that had been the Darbynian stronghold in the neighborhood to be an LGBT and women and children’s shelter. The story had spread around the neighborhood, despite him not wanting it to be spread in a way that made him out to be the hero of the story – he was a bad guy and a thief, chasing one mob family off his turf! It was a turf war! Nothing else! The only reason he had donated it was because he thought having a safehouse in exactly the same place the other Families and the cops already knew about was stupid and besides, they needed one in the neighborhood and he always thought it best to be on good terms with the residents of the neighborhood one was holed up in when one didn’t have a reason not to be, in case one needed them to lie to the cops about their whereabouts or something. But that still didn’t mean Len or Mick, who had spent much of their lives either in prison or with Lewis or competing with the traditional values of the mob families, felt entirely comfortable acknowledging what their relationship away from jobs was. 

Pradeep nodded at them, smile on his face. No need to mention the crush Pradeep had had on Len when she was younger either. “Lisa, I would recognize them anywhere. But that’s not the point. The point is our Clara has gone missing!”

Lisa met Len’s eyes before turning back to Pradeep. “Did she turn up for the show today at all?”

Pradeep nodded. “Yes. She went into the locker room to get her costume on, but she didn’t come out again afterward. We sent in Aparna after her, but she couldn’t find her at all. Only her skating bag and her costume. It seems Kristi never even got dressed. She simply vanished.”

Len leaned forward, putting a hand over Lisa’s. “We’ll start looking immediately.”

Pradeep nodded and turned back to Lisa. “I was actually wondering whether you still have the part memorized. We need someone to skate it and Becky cannot do all the moves.”

Lisa glanced at Len, who gave her a nod. “If the steps are still the same.”

Pradeep smiled and took Lisa’s hands. She gave him a small smile and didn’t pull away, a sign that she trusted him, more even than he realized. “Thank you.”

Len leaned into the conversation. “While my sister does the show, we’ll look for your missing skater.” 

“Thank you, Mr. Snart.” Pradeep’s smile of relief was genuine.

“Don’t mention it. Anyone who might have seen anything?”

He nodded. “My little sister, Aparna. She was the one who found out she’d gone missing. There was Kristi’s ice-skating bag, but the back door was apparently ajar and she was nowhere.”

Len nodded. “And where is your sister now?”

“By the locker room, Mr. Snart. I can take you and Lisa down, and of course, you too, Mr. Rory.”

Lisa was hurried off to the dressing room with Kristi’s costume. Len and Mick went with Pradeep to find a little girl with a silky, black braid who was holding her jacket. “Is this your sister?” Len asked. The little girl looked up. The resemblance to Pradeep and his mother who always came to watch the practices as well was unmistakable. Yep, definitely sister.

“This is Aparna. Aparna, these men will find Kristi for us. They are here to ask a few questions.”

She nodded and approached them. The height difference between them was considerable. He wondered if squatting down would offend her. He knew it would’ve offended Lisa. “Like an investigation?” She seemed overly happy about this, rocking backward and forward on her toes and beaming.

Len frowned at Pradeep, who explained, “My sister is a murder mystery fan.”

“Not just murders.” She shot back. “But I will give you all the info I can if it will help find Miss Kristi.”

Len nodded. “Thanks, Miss Aparna. I’m Lisa’s brother. Last time I saw you, you were only a baby in your mother’s arms. You’ve grown a lot. Still, I think a beanpole like me might have to sit down to be able to see eye to eye with you.”

Aparna nodded at the bench she’d been sitting on. Len sat reducing the height difference considerably. By the time he was big, Lisa had already hit her growth spurt, but he remembered looking at her when she was a baby and thinking she was the smallest and most precious thing he’d ever laid eyes on. 

“What do you remember of when you found her missing?”

Aparna nodded and chewed on her lip. “Umm. I remember there was her skate bag and her uniform, but she wasn’t there. Also, the back door was open a little, so I could see there was a car pulling out of the alley.”

“Could you describe the car?”

“It was a dark gray car - a sedan, but either very new or very well taken care of. I don’t know the car company. I wrote down the license plate number though.” She held out a piece of paper from under the coat.

That was more helpful than Len would have thought likely. He made a mental note never to commit a crime while she was around.

“Excellent. Could you describe the individual who took her at all?” he asked. It was worth a shot.

Aparna began chewing her lip. “Not nearly as well. He came to the bottom of the top hinge on the door and had longish black hair.”

“Curly, not curly?”

She shook her head. “Straight hair. Like Pradeep’s hair, only longer, except he was white, not Indian.”

Len nodded. “Do you know if she was seeing anyone?”

Aparna shook her head. 

Pradeep, however, answered, “There was a man who would come around from time to time to pick her up after practice. He was about this tall,” – he held up his hand a little over his head – “And had fluffy hair, dark brown, short. And he had the build of a body-builder and the few times they drove away, he was in a red sports car. Oh, and there was a tattoo running up the side of his neck, but I couldn’t see all of it.” 

Len nodded. “Helpful intel. Me and Mick, we’ll find her. And Lise will do the show for today.”

“Thank you,” Pradeep said. 

“If you need anything else to help you look for her, just ask!” Aparna said.

“Will do,” he responded. He got to his feet and turned to Mick. “Let’s go find her.” 

They headed out. “So, I’m thinking her beau was working with the Darbynians, and the asshole who kidnapped her was with the Santinis.”

Mick nodded. “Yeah. The tattoo. I’d be willing to bet it’s a tattoo of their symbol.”

Len inclined his head. “So we’re wading into a gang war. Question is, what’s going on that they kidnapped a civilian?”

“Think one of them took a hit out on the other? Girl kidnapped for collateral?”

“Could be, Mick. Let’s look into it.” Len got a not very nice smile on his face. Mick knew that expression well. It meant somebody was getting their shit tossed.

“Who’re we going to bug first, boss?”

Len considered. “Darbynians. We got more favors that their lackeys than we got with the Santinis, and they might know who exactly she was seeing.”

“First one we see in their neighborhood?” Mick asked.

Len smirked. “I was thinking their car shop actually.”

“Gabor?”

“Yeah. The gift that never stops giving.”

Mick slid into the car they had driven over in and popped the passenger side for Len. “Alright.”

Len slid in as well, as Mick pulled down the two exposed wires for the steering wheel and tapped them together a few times. The car started up and Mick pulled it out of its space and down the street towards a garage on the edge of Darbynian turf. 

As Len had explained to Mick years ago, mob families actually need a business if they want to stay afloat. While they supplement whatever their business is with their protection racket – and almost all of them engage in some form of protection racket or other, or other behaviors you got to follow to live in their area – most of them choose a legitimate business to go into. Sometimes, it’s hotels and gambling, which doubles as a money laundering operation as well. But only so many cities can support that kind of thing, and Central and Keystone were sure not places with a booming hotel trade, not the kind you’d need to bring in high rollers, and most of the gambling was small and happened up back alleys and the back room of dive bars, not in fancy joints like hotels. 

So that left several options for what the mob could engage in to make the money that they needed to buy politicians, judges and cops. Some engaged in trafficking of either drugs or girls, which Len disapproved of and would have nothing to do with, or, increasingly, both, which Len would make it so they couldn’t operate in Central if he could. Some engaged in the construction business. The Santinis had diversified their holdings depending on what city they were in and dabbled in everything, including, Len had started to suspect, trafficked girls, and while Len had no problem with prostitution, girls being held or forced into sex against their will was a major no go in his city. He was going to have to shove the Santinis out of Central one of these days.

The Darbynians dealt primarily in cars. Grabbing them, fixing them so nobody could trace them and selling them. Pocket the profits. That kind of deal. The garage they were headed to was one of a series of them throughout the city, supposedly under independent owners, but all linked up through loans and car parts and upper management.  
It was also run by one of the clumsiest individuals Len had ever met and had to be pulled out of a few scrapes which his bosses couldn’t find out about. He also paid in IOUs and just about every time Len or Mick went to call in a favor, he ended up owing them more. As Mick had said, the gift that kept on giving. 

When they pulled up beside his garage and rolled down the window, the guy hopped off his chair and walked over to the car. “What can I do you for?” he greeted.

“Gabor,” Len greeted. Gabor shifted uncomfortably. “Yes, you know why we’re here, but we’ll make it relatively painless for you,” Len continued, deepening his drawl until it was all but dripping with charm.

“What do you need?” Gabor asked.

“Just intel. Who’s dating the skater Kristi MacIver?” 

Gabor shook his head. “Uh uh. That’s above my paygrade.”

“Chill. We’re just asking intel. We ain’t gonna rob the guy or nothing. Do you know who she’s seeing?”

“The boss’s son.” 

Mick leaned over to ask, “Boss as in supervisor or boss as in Boss Boss?”

“You know. The boss of the Darbynians. Sergiy. Head boss.”

Len whistled. Mick asked, “Older or younger kid?”

“Middle. Vitaliy.” 

Mick and Len glanced at each other. “Thought he was away at school?” Len asked. Sent away was more like it, according to what Mick and Len had both heard.

“He was. He didn’t do so well so he came back.”

Len tapped the back of his ear in Mick’s direction, hidden from Gabor’s view, in their code for they would have to ascertain whether the information Gabor was giving them was true or not. 

“You happen to know if any of the Santinis madder than usual with him?” Len asked.

Gabor blinked. “They’re all pretty mad, Snart.”

Mick chuckled at the joke, and Len leaned his head over to him with a smirk. “Any of them mad enough to take a hit or a vendetta out against him?”

Gabor’s eyes widened and his body tightened up like a livewire. “Why? What’chu hear? This have to do with the girl? She been kidnapped? Crap, is she still alive? Will it start a mob war?”

Len decided to take pity on him. “Kristi went missing just this evening. We’re trying to find her before it breaks out in an all-out war.”

Gabor frowned. “Why do you care? You’ve never gotten yourselves involved in mob personal business before?”

“I’m not.” Len gave a thin lipped smile. “She’s supposed to be skating Clara in the Nutcracker tonight, and we was all set to watch it. Got tickets and everything, too. And then we find out she’s gone missing.”

“Please find her. My niece admires her a lot.”

Len glanced at Mick, wondering how the guy had done it again. “Tell you what, we find her, I’ll bring your niece backstage to get all their autographs.”

Gabor grinned. “I’ll owe you one. I can call Vitaliy in if you think it’d do any good. Say I have problems with something.”

Len was one day going to have to coach Gabor on what he should offer and what he shouldn’t if he wanted to not get in deeper trouble than he’d be able to dig himself out from. “Nah. We can go there ourselves. Keep you out of trouble.” Plus, favors were only good as long as the person who owed them was still alive to pay up.

Gabor had an expression of being mad at himself on his face. He’d probably realized only after the offer was already out of his mouth what it was he was offering and full knowledge that if Len had wanted to, he could have called it in. Len was going to let him stew in that knowledge.

“Say hi to your sister for me, alright?” he told Gabor.

Gabor nodded. “Say hi to yours.”

Len nodded back and rolled up the window.

Mick turned to Len once they had pulled around the block. “We going to their main joint?” Len flashed Mick his best smile, the one he only used when he was pleased as punch with himself. Mick laughed. “Alright. What cleverness you got planned, boss?”

“I got Mykola’s number.” Mykola. The youngest of the Darbynian boys.

“Do I want to know how you got that?”

“No.” The tone was final. They both knew there was only one person to get that tone of finality in Len’s voice whenever he came up.

“Goddamn…” Mick let the end of that trail off.

“Mick.”

“Didn’t say nothing.”

Len glanced at Mick, eyes chastising.

Mick added, “Doesn’t mean I won’t jump at the opportunity to burn him as soon as you give the word.”

Len leaned his head toward Mick in a statement to leave it till later. It was an argument they had had before, and it wasn’t about to be resolved now in the middle of a mission.  
Len pulled out a phone, flipped it open, and dialed a number. “Mykola, hello... I have some intel you might want to hear. You know your brother’s back in town? You did? How pleasant to hear the family’s all talking… Oh. Oh, I see. Well, that’s not a surprise then... Well, Mykola, you wouldn’t happen to know who Vitaliy happened to piss off, perhaps in the Santinis, perhaps not?... Oh, really! He hasn’t been out of the house!... Well, his girlfriend went missing from her ice show tonight, locker open, stuff all over the floor and everything... Yes, I’ll gladly wait, but you better get back to me soon as you do that.”

Len flipped the phone shut.

“He give you what you wanted to know?” Mick asked.

“Vitaliy’s been under house arrest since he came back. Mykola’s gonna yell at his brother till he figures out who Vitaliy pissed off when he hasn’t seen anybody outside the family since arriving in Central.”

Mick glanced at Len. “And then what? He going to call you back like a buddy of ours?”

Len glanced back at Mick. “He won’t. Vitaliy will.” Mick made a noise that told Len how likely he thought that was. “Pull over up here. If he doesn’t call in the next half hour, he’s not gonna call and we gotta go to plan b.”

Mick pulled over and turned the engine off. Len put the phone on the dashboard.

Fourteen minutes later, the phone rang. Len’s eyes glittered at Mick as he answered and put it on speaker phone. 

“What do you know about this, Leonard Snart?” came Vitaliy’s voice over the phone. Len was trying to decide what word best described his voice.

“Vitaliy, cut the crap. I’m willing to bet she was kidnapped by somebody you pissed off.”

“You don’t know anything about it,” Vitaliy hissed again. Slimy, that’s what Vitaliy’s voice sounded like. Slimy.

“Well, how ‘bout you tell me ‘cause you ain’t doing her any good from under house arrest. Who’d you piss off?” Len decided to fish. “One of the Santinis?”

Silence. 

Len fished again, “Somebody high up in their organization?”

“You’re boring me, Snart.” Vitaliy’s voice sounded genuinely bored, and a little… was that disappointed? As though he was hoping Len would guess right. Which meant it wasn’t anyone related to the Santinis. Who else could it be? Someone in his own family? But then they wouldn’t have him under house arrest. So someone outside the family, and it must be someone outside the city too, judging from Mykola’s statement, which had implied he’d been under house arrest since he got back. Trouble at school apparently. 

“If you don’t tell me, I’m gonna go to your school and get into their camera room and have to wade through hours of tape. But don’t think for a second I won’t go do that.” Len was bullshitting, of course. The amount of tape he’d have to wade through wouldn’t make that a worthwhile use of his time in trying to get Kristi back to her skating.

There was a pause. He was worried Vitaliy was going to call him on it. 

As the pause extended into ridiculousness, Len uttered in a sing-song voice, “Vitaliy.”

“Shut up for a sec,” Vitaliy hissed down the phone. It sounded like he was speaking at barely a whisper.

Len glanced at Mick, eyes showing his concern with what Vitaliy was up to. He wasn’t smart enough to arrange a coup. Only question was did he know that. Len could see the aftereffects of such a plan, and it didn’t look pretty for a lot of Central.

However, then Vitaliy said, “I had to get to the can. It isn’t the Santinis.”

“Who is it then? The Russian mob? A gang? Traffickers?”

The next words were mumbled so low that Len couldn’t hear them properly. 

“What was that?” Mick asked for him to repeat it.

“For the love of…” Vitaliy began and dropped his voice again, this time not so low that they couldn’t hear it. “The Organized Crime Division.”

Len froze up. “Organized Crime Div…? You ain’t talking CCPD Vice Squad, are you?”

Vitaliy took a deep breath, audible over the phone. “No. Fed.”

Len swore. “Why the fuck would you go and do something like telling the Fed anything that goes on in Central?” However, many likely reasons came to mind even as he was asking that. They all boiled down to Family and what one wouldn’t give to get out from under its control. 

“They said they’d arrest me otherwise. But if I cooperated, I’d be scott-free,” Vitaliy explained, but Len wondered if he knew how much he was saying with his voice and what wasn’t there.

Mick, too, got it. “You’re chicken-shit, in other words. You didn’t even want to get out till they threatened you.”

“Yeah, alright. Fine. Call me whatever you want, but I’m not being arrested for a Family business I know next to nothing about.”

Len glanced at Mick. “So how’d your girl get involved and get kidnapped, Vitaliy?”

Vitaliy sounded downright embarrassed when he spoke again. “I couldn’t go to the scheduled meetup to deliver info to them.”

Len was dumbfounded. “So send someone?”

“Jesus Christ, Snart! How am I supposed to do that? I don’t know who’s trustworthy here! I wasn’t raised for this, unlike you and the rest of Central!”

Len didn’t give a shit about his whining. He’d had to learn while still in elementary school. Vitaliy was an adult for all practical purposes. “What do you say somebody bust her out for you? Clean up your problem.”

“Why would you-?”

Len interrupted him. “But in exchange, you dish dirt on where they told you to meet them and you get the hell out of dodge. Go back to that school of yours, cause I’m willing to bet you didn’t actually do that bad on your report card." There was a hum of agreement. "Oh, another part of the deal is you break up with Kristi. She didn’t do nothing to get caught up in mob politics, and she sure as hell didn’t do nothing to get kidnapped as a mob girlfriend by the Feds.”

Vitaliy exhaled his annoyance at the phone. 

“You got a better option?” Len asked.

“Fine.” Len was surprised by how little time that took. He knew he had him eventually, but still. “Over on 3rd and Lafayette. There should be a coffee cart up the street.”

Len almost laughed. “What, really?” asked Mick.

Vitaliy said, “Yeah.” Due to the tone he said it in, Len figured it was because the Fed determined he was useless at finding things more complicated than that. 

“So I want you to go to your father and tell him you’re going back to school. I take it you’re still enrolled?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. I’ll get her out and deal with the Fed. And in exchange, you owe me one.” Before Vitaliy could come up with a response, Len hung up.

“You talk a big talk but how’re we going to get her?” Mick said.

Len opened the phone again, this time with a full grin on his face. “ _We_ ain’t, Mick.” He keyed in a few numbers and held the phone to his ear. “Hello, I’d like to report suspicious activity over on 3rd and Lafayette…”

\--

They were watching from their car when Kristi was brought out of the house the Fed had taken up residence in while watching the Darbynians and loaded into a CCPD car, shock blanket around her shoulders.

Turned out the CCPD wasn't too keen on the Fed encroaching on their territory any more than the Families or Len and Mick was. Who’d have known?

They followed at a safe distance as the car pulled into the skating rink and let her out. Aparna flung herself at Kristi as she got out of the car and turned to the cops, doing what looked like thanking them profusely. Then she led Kristi inside. 

Len and Mick waited until the cop car had pulled away before pulling into the parking lot on the side of the skating rink, getting out of the car, and going in to watch the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Cavalier perform their last dance before kissing Clara and the Nutcracker Prince goodnight. As they came out to take their bows, Lisa and Pradeep cast their eyes over Kristi standing next to Aparna, smiling at them and Lisa’s eyes drifted over to Len and Mick with a smile on her face.

“Knew you could do it, Snart.” Mick grinned at him.

“Yeah, well let’s go buy Lise, Kristi and Pradeep’s family hot chocolate on us. We deserve it.”


End file.
